Extremely effective communication of complex information

December 21, 2012

Keeping presentations about tracking study updates interesting

A common question I get is how to present a regular (monthly, quarterly) tracking study update without being excruciatingly boring. The answer is to focus exclusively on what is new since the last update, and what audience problem this new information helps solve.

Here's an email I received recently from someone to whom I gave this advice:

Hello Dr. Abela,

I was in your Extreme
Presentations workshop on November 14th in Arlington, Va. and I really
enjoyed the class. I asked you a question at lunch about how to keep a
longitudinal study fresh since I have to present it every month, and you
provided me some advice and asked for feedback about how it worked. I
have to say it worked really well. I took a good hard look at the data
and put together a story based only on items that were new or had
changed. Instead of looking at dozens of pages of stuff, I provided a
seriously reduced PowerPoint, and everyone seemed to love it, and it
sparked a lot of good conversation and follow-up action. That was
really positive to me since the last few months, the meeting had become
kind of quiet and stale.

I've also had opportunity to apply Extreme Presentation techniques
to two other reports, which have met with similarly positive feedback. I
have to say that of all of the courses I've taken professionally, this
was one of the best and most useful.

Comments

Keeping presentations about tracking study updates interesting

A common question I get is how to present a regular (monthly, quarterly) tracking study update without being excruciatingly boring. The answer is to focus exclusively on what is new since the last update, and what audience problem this new information helps solve.

Here's an email I received recently from someone to whom I gave this advice:

Hello Dr. Abela,

I was in your Extreme
Presentations workshop on November 14th in Arlington, Va. and I really
enjoyed the class. I asked you a question at lunch about how to keep a
longitudinal study fresh since I have to present it every month, and you
provided me some advice and asked for feedback about how it worked. I
have to say it worked really well. I took a good hard look at the data
and put together a story based only on items that were new or had
changed. Instead of looking at dozens of pages of stuff, I provided a
seriously reduced PowerPoint, and everyone seemed to love it, and it
sparked a lot of good conversation and follow-up action. That was
really positive to me since the last few months, the meeting had become
kind of quiet and stale.

I've also had opportunity to apply Extreme Presentation techniques
to two other reports, which have met with similarly positive feedback. I
have to say that of all of the courses I've taken professionally, this
was one of the best and most useful.

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